If you stay at the Tokyo Station Hotel with kids, don’t miss out like we did on the Pokemon Cafe

On our last trip to Japan, my husband had an ACL injury and I wanted to make sure the hotels we booked were close to all the things we wanted to visit so he didn’t have to walk too far.  In the past we have stayed in Tokyo in Shibuya at the Hotel Century Souther Tower and had a great spacious room but the walk to the train would be too far for this trip. We have also stayed at the Imperial Hotel, but this time the price to stay there was way more than we wanted to pay. And we once tried a Tokyo Airbnb apartment too but we learned after we arrived that the apartment did not want Airbnb rentals and it made us feel very uncomfortable and we haven’t used Airbnb in Japan since.  (If you have, I’d love to hear your experiences and if we should reconsider for our next trip.  We usually love using Airbnb for parts of our trips because of kitchens, washer and driers and just more space).  I read about the Tokyo Station Hotel and knew that my kids loved the Character street in Tokyo Station and so it combined a destination I knew we’d want to go to with a place to stay so I thought it would be a perfect hotel for this Japan trip with kids and a hubby who couldn’t walk too far.

The Tokyo Station Hotel

The Tokyo Station Hotel is a historical hotel located right in Tokyo Station.  It started operating in 1915 shortly after when the Tokyo Station first opened and it feels very European in design.  It has seen a lot of history and it is now designated as an Important Cultural property of Japan.  The hotel has a secret entrance in the Tokyo Station for guests only and it is grand, beautiful and exquisitely peaceful-when you step through the doors, you would never believe it is in the heart of a station that can get incredibly busy.  We checked in and were shown to our enormous room with a hallway that felt like it would go on forever.  If this is your first time to Japan, be aware that the beds are a lot smaller than in American hotels and in this hotel I’m not sure if they are even a ‘double’ size.  I think we could have asked for another bed to be rolled in if we needed it, but we were only here for a few nights and we were okay.  There was so much room to sprawl out between the ginormous bathroom, a couch area overlooking a courtyard to the entrance of Tokyo Station and a little office area that we felt very comfortable and relaxed.  If the kids were younger, the hallway would have been a perfect place to play with their Tomica cars.

I had the option to add breakfast with my hotel booking which would have been at a savings off of the regular price of breakfast at the hotel, but because Tokyo is such a foodie destination we decided to just wake up and eat at cafes so we would have room for street food and other places we wanted to visit.  We also had a lot of breakfasts included in our other stays and this was at the end of our holiday-if you haven’t had a big breakfast in Japan and you can get a good rate on it with the hotel room, this would be a fantastic place to try it because their breakfasts look epic.  We booked using Expedia and there may also be offers on the hotel website. I also didn’t realize there was a sweets shop in the hotel and if I went back, I would try to have the shave ice; it’s called “kakigori” in Japanese.

The Pokemon Cafe near Tokyo Station

I knew there was a Pokemon store in Tokyo Station but I had no idea about the Pokemon Cafe nearby.  I love the themed cafes in Japan and we’ve been to the Pom Purin Cafe before and had such a fun meal.  The Pokemon Cafe near Tokyo Station is about a 15 minute walk away from the Tokyo Station hotel and the menu looks incredible. We also found a Sean the Sheep cafe in Kichijoji but it was closed the day we were there and we went for soufflé pancakes instead. And if you are in Tokyo this summer there is an Aladdin pop-up cafe for a short time there too.  I also loved reading Lee Leoni books with my kids and if there is any chance we can get to Japan before the end of September 2019, I totally need to go to this pop up as well. 

Character Street in Tokyo Station

Tokyo Station has so many fun things to eat and see too-a few years ago, my guys were in love with Tomica Cars and there is a Tomica car store here where you can even make a customized Tomica car.  I found a Character Street Map in English and even though I usually do a lot of research on the internet in real time on the fly, maps like these help things from getting too overwhelming. Having maps or guidebooks help if I can make time to do a little pre-reading the night before to plan out where we might eat so I don’t need to find something when we’re hungry.

The kids and I also love the Gashapon machines you can find on Character Street as well as in other areas of the train station and all over Japan.  These fun toys are way cooler than anything I’ve ever seen in coin operated machines in other parts of the world and the kids and I love spending a few coins and getting a fun suprise.  I think it might have been fun if we had researched where to find the best Gashapon machines before our last trip.

Where to eat in Tokyo Station

Food choices in Tokyo Station and in Japan itself are just overwhelming.  Again, a good way to figure out where you might want to eat is by going to Google Maps, searching the area where you’re exploring and pinning a couple restaurants or cafes with decent ratings and reviews that catch your attention.  We kept seeing a crazy line form at one food stop in Tokyo Station so when we saw that it had a smaller lineup one morning we jumped in to see what everyone was buying.  It turned out to be some kind of butter sandwich cookie and then we understood why the place was called Press Butter Sand.  It wasn’t something we would typically line up for, but being part of the hype and watching other people wonder about why the big line up was forming at Press Butter Sand was also kind of fun.

We really enjoyed Garden House cafe where we ate avocado toast, banana toast and had really delicious coffee one morning.  I even broke my rule of never going back to the same place twice on a vacation and went back for breakfast another morning.  Garden House cafe also has a really delicious Azuki bean pastry if you are a fan of these types of pastries like I am.

There is no way to eat as much as our eyes can, so there are tons and tons of pictures of food on my phone.  In Tokyo Station we found Hello Kitty desserts, adorable donuts and interesting pastries as well as a Ramen street and many many restaurants and food stands.  The Tokyo Station Hotel is definitely a great place to stay if you don’t want to travel far for good eats and fun things to see.

Other places you can go to from Tokyo Station

If you are headed to Tokyo or to Japan we have traveled there a bunch of times and have a few posts that might help you out if you are heading their with kids.  The cool thing about staying at Tokyo Station is that many of them are just a train ride away:

Arashiyama and visiting monkeys with kids in Japan

What we pre-read before we go on our trips to Japan

A trip to Okinawa

A toystore your kids might love in Japan

Visit one of Japan’s oldest markets

Yokohama and the Cup Noodles Museum with kids

Visiting the Toyota Factory in Nagoya Japan

(PS. if you’re curious what to wear in Tokyo in February, check out what we are wearing.  It is chilly outside when you leave Tokyo Station and it snowed in Tokyo the day we arrived!)

Also, this was written pre-2020 and now there are a bunch more family-friendly type hotels.  We recently stayed at a couple of the Mimaru chain hotels and they were fantastic.  Our favorite was in the Sensoji temple area of Japan.

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)